News
But a vaccine against infection remains elusive
Ontario’s universities reacted positively to new spending initiatives contained in the provincial budget tabled at the end of March. Among the highlights, the Ontario government will invest $200 million this year for the maintenance and renewal of university facilities, building on earlier investments through the government’s $6.2-billion Reaching Higher plan. The province’s universities appreciate the […]
At a time when indigenous languages are vanishing around the world, a University of Alberta graduate student is working towards preserving the language of his people, the 30,000 inhabitants of the small Japanese island of Tokunoshima. “I want to give something back to my island because we’re losing in a way our identity, who we […]
Participants to this year’s gathering in Vancouver urged to “think beyond borders”
Is Dr. James Wilson a McGill man? Rumour and speculation abound since he was first seen sporting a McGill University sweatshirt in season two of the popular medical drama House, which airs on Fox TV in the U.S. and on the Global network in Canada, attracting some 20 million viewers per episode. The show is […]
There’s never been anything quite like it in Canada: the University of Waterloo is setting aside its smallest student residence to serve as an “ideas incubator” filled with entrepreneurially inclined students. Starting in September, the 72 students picked to live in the university’s Minota Hagey Residence will work together to imagine the future of mobile […]
Although the issue was first raised about 10 years ago, Canada has not yet developed a plan to deal with the pharmaceuticals and personal-care products that get flushed down the drain, pass right through municipal wastewater treatment plants, and end up in our rivers and lakes. If that isn’t worrying enough, there is now an […]
Atlantic region uses cable network to publicize research successes
A Texas jury ruled that Canadian educational software firm Desire2Learn infringed on a patent from its large American rival, Blackboard Inc. In its Feb. 22 decision, the jury concluded that Desire2Learn’s software uses technology for which Blackboard received a patent in 2006 and awarded the American company $3.1 million US in lost profits and royalties. […]
Gathering shares research showing even high achievers face problems in first year
Blending up fast food meals to find their fat content, programming a miniature remote-controlled Mars rover, making digital video programs – these are but a few of the activities that take place in the hundreds of science and technology programs sponsored by the national charity Actua and delivered by its 29 university and college partners. […]
Home is where … we consume a lot of energy. Residential buildings account for nearly 17 percent of energy consumption in Canada, says Ian Beausoleil-Morrison, a mechanical engineering professor at Carleton University. Lights, appliances, heaters and air conditioners produce 80 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Energy is also wasted in the form of heat […]
The 1995 film First Knight is not one of Cory Rushton’s all-time favourites, but the Arthurian scholar may be quietly hoping that the film attracts a big audience when it’s re-released this April in Blu-ray high-definition format. That’s because one of the special features of the new package will be a commentary track recorded by […]
Université Laval plans to create 100 new research chairs over the next five years, with $100 million in funding from public and private sources. The program, called PAIR (for Programme pour l’avancement de l’innovation et de la recherche) is the most ambitious initiative of its kind ever launched in Quebec, according to Laval’s vice-rector, research, […]
Restructured student grants program, international graduate scholarships, slight research boost among budget items
Premier Shawn Graham plans to make sweeping changes to New Brunswick’s colleges and universities as part of the province’s most ambitious review of its postsecondary system in 40 years, but he insists that these changes won’t come at the expense of some university campuses. After months of uncertainty, Mr. Graham pledged in his State of […]
Ask Lakehead University students if they’re happy with their school’s one-year-old Google-run e-mail service, and chances are you’ll get a positive response. “I love the new Lakehead gmail e-mail system,” said third-year political-science student Brianne Kirkpatrick. “Since the switch to gmail, I find it has replaced my hotmail as the e-mail of preference,” said David […]
Not long ago, Wanda McKenna, director of workplace health, benefits and pensions at McMaster University, was contacted by a department chair concerned about a colleague. The professor was spending a lot of time sitting in his office with the door closed and lights off. And students were beginning to complain about his teaching. Ms. McKenna […]
By 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday, January 16, more than 700 people had gathered in front of Queen’s University’s Stauffer Library for a faculty-organized rally against racism. The day, time and location of the rally were no coincidence. Exactly eight weeks before, a faculty member on her way to teach a class was forced off a […]
Torching cars, submerging them in water – what’s next, dropping them off a bridge? It’s all in a day’s work for university researchers. The torchbearers are Simon Fraser University criminologist Gail Anderson and graduate student Stacey McCann; Ms. McCann was conducting the research for her thesis. The two set fire to three cars that contained […]